Covergirl – Elizabeth Whibley |

April 30, 2019 0 Comments

Elizabeth Whibley is our first covergirl! We chose her because she represents the modern fashion creative we love. She has a signature style. Loves colour. Makes her own stuff. Buys stuff and alters it. She blogs. Whatever she does, she does it well, and owns it. She calls herself a ‘pinktastic’ creative. You’ll usually find her in some variation of pink on any given day. We had a chat about her, to find out more on what else makes her tick.

1. Tell us a bit about your journey to being a bonafide fashionista

I was always loved ‘dressing up’ and the narrative and element of play that can come with fancy dress. I was extremely lucky that as a child I had a huge dressing up box full of spangly and outrageous outfits and accessorises that I quite often whipped out day to day to mix with my everyday clothing. As a child I liked to take elements of dressing up, eg princess shoes, and wear these outside the house. Now my wardrobe feels just as exciting as that dressing up box as over the years I’ve collected and purchased some very special pieces. My style is very playful, personified and nostalgic. I have always enjoyed the plethora of pinks and soft colours, motifs and textures in girl hood, these have certainly influenced my adult dress and branding. I think it’s very important to dress true to what you personally find appealing and delightful.

2. We see you really love pink. When did this colourful obsession start?

Most likely i was accidentally conditioned to totally adore the colour pink. In girlhood its EVERYWHERE and I gladly adopted it as my favourite. It can represent so many things to me – cuteness, happiness, comfort, confidence, power and familiarity. It’s just a very fun colour to me !!

3. We notice you like to mix vintage and modern pieces, what would you say inspires your looks?

My inspiration defiantly comes from childhood and nostalgic, romanticised ideas of decades before my own. Most of my wardrobe is second hand. I have lots of special original pieces from the 60s and 70s but a lot of my wardrobe is bulked out by second hand charity shop finds, these pieces may not be more than a few years old but still play an important role in my wardrobe as they are a lot more affordable. Recently I have started to follow several vintage and second hand companies on Instagram and depop so a lot of my recent stuff comes from those individual sellers. Be sure to check out my Instagram @elizabethwhibley where I am often sharing and talking about vintage/ independent/ sustainabile/ vegan and cruelty free brands. I really love holidaying, I do work hard to be able to travel when I can ! I always feel so inspired and totally refreshed after visiting somewhere new. Tokyo, certainly was the dreamiest place I’ve ever been to, inspiration from this trip has been the primary source for my final collection at uni. For the best vintage clothes my top five places are Brighton, Manchester, Amsterdam, New York and San Francisco. Most of my new clothes come from independent designers, for me it a great deal more important to buy from real people than huge chain fast fashion corporations where the money goes back into one rich persons already bulging pocket. Many small businesses are a lot more sustainable and responsible than fast fashion brands.

4. How long does it take to have your signature aesthetic? Do you have days where just can’t be bothered?

I would say the accessorising is the longest process of dressing just because I have a huge array of earrings, hair clips, socks, bags, and jewellery etc. But dressing in the colours I do is just as easy as dressing in all black because my wardrobe is very interchangeable and easy to mix and match with each other. I’m trying to condense my clothing consumption to make a capsule wardrobe comprised off less stuff but with more possibilities. Staple pieces like coloured roll necks and trousers that can be dressed up or down, in most cases that is dressing up ! I definitely have days where less effort is put in, but that is only when my efforts are being applied to other very important elements of my life like my degree studies or development of my business. Even then my comfy clothes are still cute and cosy. I thinks it’s important to be ‘on brand’ at most times, but also not too apply to much pressure to yourself to constantly look AMAZING 24/7 because some days your mind and body are just not up to it. It’s all about finding a balance. If haven’t worn makeup in a few days or been pulling as many big bold looks and then I go all out I remember who I am and how my relationship with clothing is so rewarding to make me feel empowered and inspired. Just do YOU let other people do that too.

5. How does being a fashion, design & print student help?

Studying and learning the craft and skills to draw, design print, design garments, pattern cut and then sew and construct has really made me appreciate clothes more. I can relate to how they have been made, and how much effort that person making it would have gone through, and how talented seamstresses are. It has really put me off fast fashion and over the last two years I’ve really been weening myself off all the high street stores – now I don’t even go inside them. Studying fashion has also shown me how much waste is created, and it’s really upsetting to know I have studied one of the most harmful and destructive industries. I don’t think the amount of waste I now know the fashion industry is responsible for is sow,thing I’m still shocked by and didn’t predict to be severe. I’ve always been a very arty crafty child and my mum always got me using materials wisely and recycling and using scraps to create new projects so I’ve always been very savvy and aware in that aspect. So with that and what I’ve learnt and experienced about waste in my degree has only made me more driven to be responsible and as minimal waste as possible. On a much brighter side, studying fashion print has been the most rewarding and inspiring time of my life and I have learnt so much which I am translating into the future of launching my own fashion brand.

6. How much do you love London Fashion Week? And how much work goes into those looks?

I love London Fashion Week and have been going for a few years now with the same crowd, so in that respect it’s really wonderful for catching up with pals also in the fashion industry. I have been really lucky to have seen some very cool brands in motion and up close, I love the live catwalks for that rush and excitement. Elements of Fashion week can feel forced or fake – I would say not all shows have a friendly or supportive vibe. It appears to me that some people go purely to say they’ve been when perhaps they may not appreciate, love or study creative subjects. Fashion Weeks seems to be pretty exclusive, it is about who you know and not what you know. This certainly can be advantageous to some people and I have meant so so many groovy and gorgeous creative people. It’s really hard to predict I feel. The weekend as a whole is pretty tiring but always inspiring. Personally I prefer Graduate Fashion Week, which I’ve been to for the last three summers. This space is so genuine and engaging because it’s comprised of young talent and real creatives and graduates. It’s very obvious at the hard work and passion that has been put in by students lucky enough to show there. It’s not as big or press-covered as all the huge shows at LFW but for me it’s so much more relatable and fun. The fashion industry as a whole has a great deal of work to do to be more sustainable and eco responsible as well as being more inclusive and representative of real people – this is something I am conscious of as I continue to work in this industry.

7. Tell us more about the earrings and the prints that you sell

I started up a little Etsy shop around three years ago – my ‘LOVE YOURSELF’ earrings have been going for approx two years now. I am so so proud of them, the design has changed a few times whilst I developed my skills in Illustrator (I must give credit to my boyfriend Lawrence for really helping me out with Illustrator) ((I am not a very techy person all)) We’ve been working really hard to get my other earring designs come to life and I’ve got some really funky and special designs coming out this summer. I recently launched the final and best version of the ‘LOVE MYSELF’ earrings which have sold out three times already since. They have been more successful than I had ever imagined, it has been so rewarding to see my designs on so many lovely humans! These earrings will continue to be a staple of my brand because they share such a simple and confident message of proudly loving oneself. Whilst studying I started to develop my digital drawing skills and I sell some of my illustrations with my earrings on my website www.elizabethwhibley.co.uk

8. What’s next? Anything exciting on the horizon?

SO so many exciting things are coming my way – I know this year is going to be incredible for me. As mentioned before, Graduate Fashion Week is happening in June and I really really hope to be chosen to have a spot there to show my third year final collection. This would be a total dream come true. I will be graduating this year too and starting my Masters in September ! So lots of celebrating but more hard work to be had too. I really hope to develop and work on my brand to extend beyond my earring designs. Looking way ahead into the future I will launch a groovy size inclusive fashion brand of printed roll necks and accessorises. I still have a lot of trialing and learning to do, but snazzy things are coming as soon as I can manage.

Over the last few years I’ve been modelling/styling/collaborating for some really amazing brands and companies. So many more of these are upcoming too, so am in discussions on some commissions and new projects.

Outfit one [pink leather and t-shirt] – both tops – second hand unbranded – depop

Trousers – depop

Diamonte Necklace – second hand charity shop

Sunglasses – second hand – depop (originally UNIF)

Belt – charity shop second hand

Boots – ebay

Outfit two – Holly Baxter – independent designer

Belt and tights – vintage second handBoots – ebay

Follow Elizabeth and her pinktastic journeys and looks on her Instagram here and for any of upcoming look books and sales on www.elizabethwhibley.co.uk

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See MORE in our 1st print edition out now here

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